


Devotion

by LightningStarborne



Series: Father of Dragons [1]
Category: Temeraire - Naomi Novik, 天官赐福 - 墨香铜臭 | Tiān Guān Cì Fú - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù
Genre: Anniversary, BC I SAY SO, Dragons, Heteronormativity, Homophobia, M/M, Miscommunication, Non-Binary Hua Cheng, People In Love, Post-Canon, Transphobia, Transphobia Does Not Exist in Heavens Official Blessing, Xie Lian Becomes Emperor After Canon, bc it does exist in temeraire, bc of the translation errors, bullshit powers for xie lian, but it happens, for HoB at least, godly powers, it takes a bit, its just, its not anything bad, its not rlly shown in this one, neither does homophobia, that is for later, the T rating is bc xie lian says fuck, translation errors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-15
Updated: 2020-06-14
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:40:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24726892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LightningStarborne/pseuds/LightningStarborne
Summary: Somehow, Hua Cheng always managed to blow Xie Lian away with his acts of devotion.Translations, however, don't always manage to get everything exactly right.
Relationships: Huā Chéng/Xiè Lián
Series: Father of Dragons [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1787860
Comments: 6
Kudos: 71





	1. Hua Cheng says 'fuck it' and just makes a new species

**Author's Note:**

> This is what happens when you read Throne of Jade right after reading TGCF.

Xie Lian loved Hua Cheng for many  _ many _ reasons, from the way his brusque attitude softened when Xie Lian took his hand to the vicious fury that he had whenever someone defied his beliefs. It definitely hadn’t helped Xie Lian stop falling in love when he realized that those ‘beliefs’ included that writing was the absolute worst, that gods fuckin sucked, and Black Water is the worst supreme ghost by virtue of there only being two supreme ghosts and crimson rain was the best. Those beliefs also included that Xie Lian is the greatest being ever to exist, that Xie Lian is the most beautiful person to ever breathe, and that Xie Lian deserves the entire world. While it took him a while to get used to those particular beliefs, Xie Lian could not deny that it was wonderful to be adored without reservation.

_ Anyway. _

One of the many reasons that Xie Lian loved Hua Cheng was his acts of devotion. Many of them were huge, such as carving a giant statue of Xie Lian in the most dangerous place in the world, but some of them were small, such as giving Xie Lian at least ten kisses every single day.

Since it was their thousand year anniversary, Xie Lian knew that Hua Cheng was going to go overboard. It was a fact of life. The sky was blue, the grass was green, and if Hua Cheng could do something utterly magnificent in order to show his love to Xie Lian, then he would.

This, however? This was a whole new level of devotion.

Laying a hand on the stone, Xie Lian could feel heat radiating from it, almost as if it were alive. Each scale on the statue had a unique texture and Xie Lian could see thousands of them, all over the creature.

“It’s beautiful, San Lang,” Xie Lian breathed when he heard Hua Cheng shuffle nervously behind him. If he weren’t so stupified by the beauty of the statue, Xie Lian would have consoled his husband some more, but there was simply too much to look at.

Xie Lian leapt backward for a better view. It was just so damn  _ big _ that he couldn’t see all of it at once. 

The creature was one that had never existed, as far as Xie Lian knew, and it was beautiful and vicious at the same time. Its mouth was open in a roar, exposing sharp teeth, while wings arched gracefully to either side of its large body. The claws on its feet were wickedly long while the tail stretched out elegantly. When Xie Lian leapt over to look, the frills were mantled aggressively, but Hua Cheng had carved them as thin as a blade. 

Every part of the creature was a contrast, elegant and fierce, strong and vulnerable, aggressive and defensive. 

“I call it a dragon, gege,” Hua Cheng said, his voice smug as could be. “Do you like it?”

“I have never seen anything as beautiful in my life,” Xie Lian said. “You made this for  _ me _ ?” Xie Lian could live for a million years and never get used to the things that Hua Cheng would do for him.

“Of course, gege,” Hua Cheng said, leaning down to hook his chin over Xie Lian’s shoulder as they looked at the dragon. “Who else would I make it for?”

“I would say that this is too much,” Xie Lian said, “but I should be used to this by now.”

“You should,” Hua Cheng agreed. “My only regret is that I could not bring it to life for you.”

Xie Lian turned in Hua Cheng’s arms to meet his eyes as his husband tilted his head down to look at him. “You wanted to bring them to life for me?”   
  


A frown pulled at Hua Cheng’s handsome face. “Yes, but I’m afraid it is not within my abilities.” A sigh. “I had hoped that it could protect you when I’m not there.”

That was exactly the kind of thing that Hua Cheng would do. The only difference between this act of devotion and all the others was that, for the first time ever, Hua Cheng could not complete the entire act. 

Xie Lian, on the other hand…

Ever since he had become the emperor of the gods, he had found that he had abilities that normal gods didn’t. This might not be one of them, but it couldn’t hurt to try, could it? Especially since it would make Hua Cheng happy…

Xie Lian stepped out of the circle of his husband’s arms and made his way over to the dragon. It was humongous, looming over Xie Lian and almost filling up the entire space of the cave that Hua Cheng had chosen to carve it out of. There was not a single flaw in the statue, which would certainly work in Xie Lian’s favour.

Leaping up to the dragon, Xie Lian pulled himself up onto the dragon’s snout and very carefully walked up until he was eye to eye with it. He knelt as best he could and leaned forward, pressing his lips to the warm stone between the dragon’s eyes. 

When pouring the spiritual energy into the statue, Xie Lian changed the intent behind it. A simple transfer of energy would not bring it to life - not like he needed it to. Bringing it to life - giving it personality and life and hope and sadness and anger and joy- that needed a very specific intent. Hua Cheng started it with carving the dragon, but Xie Lian needed to finish it with the influx of energy.

Sooner than he expected, Xie Lian felt the stone underneath his lips soften into true scales and he pulled back as the life spread, and the dragon began to blink. 

Xie Lian leapt off its snout before it woke enough to knock him off and the look in Hua Cheng’s eyes when Xie Lian landed next to him made warmth suffuse his whole body. 

“Dianxia,” Hua Cheng breathed and Xie Lian blushed at the awe in his voice.

The dragon finally finished coming to life, its black scales glittering in a manner quite unlike the lava rock it was carved from. It folded its wings back against its spine and squinted red eyes at Xie Lian, before looking around itself at the cave in general until its gaze settled back on Xie Lian.

“Who are you?” The dragon asked. 

“Well now it’s obvious I made you,” Hua Cheng said cheerfully. “First person they ask about is you.”

Xie Lian elbowed him lightly. “I’m Xie Lian. Do you have a name?”

They opened their mouth, then paused. “I… I do not know. Perhaps you can give me one?”

Xie Lian looked at Hua Cheng, who looked back at him calmly. “I made them for you, gege. You get to name them.”

Xie Lian thought for a moment. “Shi Feng. After an old friend of mine.”

“Shi Feng,” the dragon rolled the name around in their mouth. “I rather like that.”

“Alright, Shi Feng,” Xie Lian smiled, “shall we go see the world outside of this little cave?”

  
  


~

  
  


The first dragon was created by an act of devotion. An act of worship from a devout worshipper to their beloved god. 

The second dragon was an act of love. From both a husband who desperately loved his spouse and a rider who loved his lonely dragon.

  
  


~

  
  


“Dianxia, I think you should leave the carving to Blood Rain,” Mu Qing said, staring at the vaguely dragon-shaped lump. 

“I don’t even know what the fuck that is supposed to be,” Feng Xin agreed.

Xie Lian sighed deeply, putting the tools down on top of what was supposed to be the dragon’s neck, but unfortunately, his former attendants were right. He was terrible at carving. 

This dragon had the right shape in general, with wings, a tail, a head, and four legs, but the details just wouldn’t come together. Even though Xie Lian could picture exactly what he wanted in his head, he didn’t have the skills to put it into a cohesive image. 

So.

Dragon shaped lump.

Feng Xin and Mu Qing looked at each other as Xie Lian slumped back in frustration. After a brief war - which was entirely them glaring at each other - Mu Qing sighed and leapt up to stand next to Xie Lian, lean down, and pat his shoulder consolingly.

“You’ll get it eventually, Dianxia,” Mu Qing said and Xie Lian made a frustrated noise. 

After three more hours of work while Mu Qing and Feng Xin attempted to console and encourage him, they eventually had to leave to do other things. Xie Lian, however, refused to call it quits and continued working.

He finally broke after six hours straight of work. Xie Lian had been working on this for months, it was supposed to be something special for Shi Feng and Hua Cheng and yet it wasn’t working!

“Gah!” Xie Lian shouted, kicking a chisel at the wall. “Fuck! Why isn’t this working!”

Xie Lian slumped against the base of the dragon’s neck, burying his face where there would hopefully be scales in the future. Why the hell couldn’t he do anything right? Hua Cheng was always so good at everything and managed to make everything perfect for Xie Lian, so he just wanted to return the favour for once. Instead, he was just fucking everything up. Like always.

“Fuck,” he whispered into the terribly carved neck, as he felt tears welling up. “I just want to make something nice for him. Why do I always think that I can make anything nice?”

All of the good things in Xie Lian’s life were because of Hua Cheng, Xie Lian thought as the tears began to fall onto the stone beneath his face. Hua Cheng had done nothing but suffer for Xie Lian and this dragon was meant to be the one thing that would not make him suffer but of course Xie Lian was-

Xie Lian was sitting on stone that was beginning to crack beneath him. Of course. Of course the stone would break while Xie Lian was too busy wallowing.

Jumping to safety, Xie Lian stared in horror as the stone began cracking all along the dragon. Fissures ran through the stone, branching out and into other cracks until pieces started falling off. 

All Xie Lian could do was stare as all of his hard work started falling apart.

Except.

Instead of shattering, the stone seemed to be falling off of something, piece by piece, until a glimmer of white could be seen under the dusty stone. The white spread until a large white dragon shook off the dust and the stone and turned face Xie Lian. 

“Hello,” they said, confusedly.

“Hi,” Xie Lian responded.

They stared at each other for a few minutes before Xie Lian finally jerked back into awareness and hurriedly summoned Hua Cheng through the spirit array.

“Gege,” Hua Cheng called as he slid into the cave, “gege, are you alright? You didn’t elaborate on the array-”

Hua Cheng stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Xie Lian standing nose-to-nose with a dragon. He stared at them for a moment before he turned to Xie Lian as a smile rose onto his face, joy lighting his face.

“Gege,” he said again, “did you make me another dragon?”

Xie Lian scuffed his boot against the floor, finally looking away from the dragon, who turned to look at Hua Cheng. “I was going to bring them to life on your birthday, but-” He gestured at the living, breathing dragon and shrugged.

Hua Cheng swept Xie Lian into a hug and kissed his face. “Gege, they’re perfect. Almost as perfect as you, in fact.”

Xie Lian’s face turned bright red and he grinned at Hua Cheng. “What do you want to name them? It’s your turn.”

“Bei Ai,” Hua Cheng said after a moment of contemplation, “since I feel so loved when I’m with you.”

Xie Lian buried his face in his hands for a moment as he was overtaken. He took a deep breath before kissing Hua Cheng on the cheek and saying, “I really hope I make San Lang feel as loved as he makes me feel.”

“You do,” Hua Cheng said, grabbing his hand. “You always have.”


	2. The Ghost King's Gift

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Laurence reads Temeraire a fable.

“Laurence, could you read another of the dragon fables?” Temeraire asked when Laurence showed up after a long day of training. “I believe we had a few left still.”

Laurence, who had carried down several books for Temeraire to choose from, agreed immediately. There were three stories from the fables that they had not read together yet;  _ The Ghost King’s Gift _ ,  _ Shi Feng’s Demise _ , and  _ Bei Ai’s Flight _ . When Laurence offered these options to Temeraire, his dragon chose the first one,  _ The Ghost King’s Gift. _

Laurence opened the book to the first page, which had an elegantly drawn pair of dragons, one shaded in black and the other left pale. They both had similar features to Temeraire, including the ruff and the tendrils. The black one was the closer match, both in coloring and in elegance. The white one was larger and more muscular, shaped almost like a Regal Copper. They were both arching in a heart shape around a couple, one in red and one in white. 

Temeraire peered at the picture as best he could while Laurence held it up for him to see. “I have never seen a white dragon before. Do you suppose that there is a reason behind it?”

“Perhaps it will be explained in the story proper,” Laurence replied and turned the page to where the story started and began to read.

  
  


_ The Ghost King, beloved by the Emperor of the gods, was the most devoted follower of her husband. She followed him through all problems that arose, big and small, and offered her everything to him.  _

_ She offered him her home in Ghost City and every comfort therein. She offered him weapons and armor and spiritual objects. She offered him her life, the ghosts she controlled, all of Ghost City, and, eventually, her hand in marriage. _

_ The most widespread gift that the Ghost King ever offered her husband, however, came on the thousand year anniversary of their marriage. _

_ For five long years the Ghost King worked and toiled. She carved and painted. Each hit of her chisel was born of devotion and each scrape on her hand was born of devotion. She loved her husband with her whole being, a fact that she never allowed any dispute in, and she desired that this gift show a thousand years of affection. Anything less than perfection was unacceptable. _

_ And it was  _ perfect _.. _

_ The dragon was elegant and beautiful, perfectly formed. The ruff was as thin as parchment and the tendrils flowed smoothly, as if caught in a wind. Each scale was individually carved and each talon was sharp enough to cut through stone. The dragon looked as if it could shake off its petrification and take flight. _

_ However, despite all the Ghost King’s efforts, it never would, for the Ghost King was the king of the dead and she would never be able to create life. _

_ On the day of their anniversary, the Ghost King presented the dragon to the Emperor of the Gods with a heavy heart. Her gift would never be able to show the true depth of her devotion as long as it remained stone. _

_ What the Ghost King forgot in her despair was that the Emperor loved her just as much as she loved him and would never stand for his beloved’s grief. So the Emperor of the Gods leapt onto the dragon’s snout and pressed his lips to the dragon’s head and breathed life into his gift.  _

_ The Ghost King and the Emperor of the Gods watched as the very first dragon drew breath, blinked stone out of its eyes, and shook the dust off its scales. It was as perfect as the Ghost King had carved it, each movement perfectly alive. _

_ The Emperor of the Gods looked upon its magnificent wings and named it “Shi Feng.” _

_ Creating the second dragon was much harder. While the Ghost King was a talented artist and the best sculptor the world could find, the Emperor of the Gods had talents that lie elsewhere. _

_ The Emperor could wrangle a court into submission, fight a beast thrice his own size, and save a child from poverty, but he had never learned how to sculpt. _

_ This did not stop him trying, for he watched his dragon fly alone in the sky and longed to offer it a companion. His own beloved Ghost King had created the first dragon for him, he mused, so it would be fitting if the second dragon was made by his own hands.  _

_ The Emperor of the Gods tried. He tried again and again and again, but each dragon fell to pieces beneath his inexperienced hand. Every attempt led to more and more frustration until it broke. _

_ It was not anything big that made his frustration boil over. No, it was the culmination of all the problems he had with the creation of the new dragon mixed with one single stroke that fell too hard. _

_ The Emperor of the Gods threw down his tools and wept on the dragon. It was not pretty, not like the Ghost King’s had been. It was barely recognizable as a dragon, but as the Emperor wept, the stone began to crack. _

_ As the stone began to fall, the Emperor watched with despair, then shock as a pure white wing emerged from beneath the stone. The wing was followed by the body, the tail, and finally, the dragon’s face.  _

_ Overjoyed, the Emperor merely grinned at the dragon for a few minutes before calling for his Ghost King.  _

_ The Ghost King saw the dragon before her beloved and grinned wildly, sweeping the Emperor into a kiss even before she named the dragon. _

_ The dragon she named Bei Ai, for how loved she felt when she was with the Emperor of the Gods.  _

  
  


_ Translator’s Notes: Within this story there was a chinese character (their form of letters) I had never seen before. From what I could tell, it referred to the Ghost King in place of either ‘he’ or ‘she.’ I am presuming that this is because she is the Ghost King and has a male title despite being female. Or maybe it is simply a special pronoun for the Ghost King. I am not sure, so I simply translated it as ‘she.’  _

_ The Ghost King is also a particularly popular character in stories, though their gender switches often. I have not been able to figure out a pattern for it, though the most popular of stories has him as a man. I mean to translate that one in the future, a story about how he defeated a number of gods in the Chinese version of heaven.  _

_ Their version of heaven and gods is very different to our own, as shown in this story. Had this been a standard book of fables rather than one about dragons, there would have been many more stories about gods. In China they believe in a pantheon of gods rather than our single Lord. These gods are not the same either, as many of the stories refer to a human ‘cultivating’ into godhood. The only god who has remained the same throughout the centuries (potentially even millenia) is the Emperor of the Gods, which the stories that I have read attest to the Ghost King’s affection for him, in whichever form it is written. These gods function on belief instead of simply existing, and any god who is not worshipped falls from grace and dies as a mortal. Ghosts do not function the same way and thus the Emperor of the Gods always had at least one worshipper at all times, so he has remained the Emperor and a god because he will never die. _

_ You may find my notes on cultivators and ghosts in the footnotes of  _ The Dragon Tamer _ on page 15. _

“Such devotion!” Temeraire exclaimed. “Imagine what normal people could make if we had the same powers as the Emperor of the Gods.”

“It is better that we do not,” Laurence said, though he did not tell Temeraire of the bad taste the references to gods left in his mouth. To worship any god but the Lord was blasphemy, even if it was in \fables. Did the Chinese truly still worship these gods? How would they ever make it to the  _ true _ heaven if they believed such things?

Perhaps that was why they wrote so many stories of this ‘Ghost King.’ They hoped that they would get a good place under them when they died. Laurence shivered at the idea of dying only to be forced under the rule of some ghost, rather than in heaven. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the whole thing abt there being a special character for the ghost king is completely made up. this world is different bc hua cheng and xie lian exist and so do gods and cultivators and shit. poor laurence is too christian for them though. don't worry :). he'll figure out how to reconnect his concept of God with the fact that Chinese gods exist. primarily bc xie lian is The Best.


End file.
